In hindsight, the answer was obvious.

A bar.

Additional Images

Staff illustration by Michael Fisher

IF YOU GO

WHAT: “A Night at the Bar: Readings of Dylan Thomas”

WHEN: 5:30 p.m. Monday

WHERE: Katahdin Restaurant, 27 Forest Ave., Portland

HOW MUCH: $5 suggested

INFO: 775-1043, Ext. 105, or portlandstage.org

ACTORS INVOLVED: David Butler, Maureen Butler, Moira Driscoll, Andrew Harris, Daniel Noel, Dustin Tucker and Ella Wren.

WHAT ELSE: To listen to a recording of Dylan Thomas reading “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night,” visit: bit.ly/1hHkpVw

The question: Where should local actors celebrate the anniversary of the birth of Dylan Thomas? The famous Welsh poet and notorious drinker would have turned 100 on Monday.

“Some things are meant to be done in a bar, and this is one of them,” actor Andrew Harris said.

Harris is organizing Monday’s reading, which will include poetry, excerpts from short stories and plays, and anecdotes about the life of Thomas, who was one of the United Kingdom’s most loved writers.

Actors affiliated with Portland Stage Company will set up at Katahdin Restaurant, downstairs from the Forest Avenue theater in downtown Portland. They will be in street clothes and read from a script that Harris prepared. It highlights Thomas’ best-known works, including the poems “Do not go gentle into that good night” and “Fern Hill” and sections from his radio drama “Under Milk Wood.”

The latter was published in 1953, the year Thomas died in New York City at 39.

In life, he was a rock ‘n’ roll poet, and one of the first who took advantage of what was then mass media – radio and vinyl records – to reach a wide audience. He made spoken word cool and cleared a path for the Beat poets who came after him in the 1950s and ’60s. He was young and hip, and he reveled in a bad-boy image fueled by his love of whiskey and women and a devil-may-care attitude.

Before Jack Kerouac or Keith Richards, there was Dylan Thomas.

He influenced writers and rock stars, and he backed his image with words and actions. The guy could write, Maine poet laureate Wesley McNair said.

“I discovered his poetry when I was 19 and memorized some of it, just because I loved reciting it – singing it, really – it was so lyrical,” McNair said. “Little did I know that in learning it by heart, I was also committing it to the very place my own poetry would come from. I am to this day indebted to Thomas for the influence of his music, his mesmerizing imagery, and his insistence that poetry comes from the life you live, suffering, joy and all.”

He remains relevant today. “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” is standard fare at funerals and memorial services, and “Under Milk Wood” is staged frequently.

The centennial celebration of his birth has seen the release of new anthologies and appreciations, as well as the unearthing of never-before-published writings. It’s also brought new attention to his cultural contributions.

The Portland celebration is among hundreds scheduled around the world to mark the birth of a man whose words resonate with generations of men and woman from the United Kingdom and across the Atlantic Ocean.

Harris, the Portland actor, was born in England in 1954, a year after Thomas died. He grew up listening to recordings of the poet on the radio and on records that his family owned. At the holidays, “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” was a family tradition. Thomas’ books lined the family bookshelves.

“He was part of my world. He was a part of everybody’s world,” Harris said. “He was a brilliant storyteller, so rich with his characters. He wrote about simpler times and did so in such a way that he was able to create a whole atmosphere with just a few lines.”

Thomas wrote in English, not the native language of Wales. Before he became a famous writer, he worked as a journalist, as did Harris’ father. The paths of Thomas and the elder Harris crossed a few times on stories they both covered.

They weren’t friends, but as Thomas became famous, Harris’s father could rightly say, “I knew him when.”

As Harris grew up and became interested in theater, he took an instant liking to the language that Thomas used.

“I’m not a big poetry fan, but the thing that fascinated me about Dylan Thomas was when I heard his words spoken,” Harris said. “It was the way the words sound to the ear. The words almost sing off the page.”

Harris is encouraging his American-born acting friends to affect what he called “BBC English” accents for Monday’s reading, if they can. More important, he hopes they get close to the cadence of the language. Thomas performed his poetry with a sing-song rhythm, which is what people reference when they talk about the musical nature of his work, he said.

Maureen Butler, one of seven actors who will participate in Monday’s program, first encountered the works of Thomas when she was in college. He became one of her favorite poets because of the imagery that he created. His poems and other writings made sense to her and spoke to her in a way that felt both comfortable and familiar, even though Thomas grew up in another part of the world and under different circumstances.

She remembers hearing his voice on recordings and feeling mesmerized “by the rhythm and music of his voice. It was wonderful stuff to hear.”

Actor Moira Driscoll was surprised to learn that Thomas died so young. He wrote with the wisdom of someone much older, she said, and embodied the ideal of “living fast and dying young.”

Thomas came to New York in 1950 for a tour of college campuses. His reputation as an imbiber was widely known and also exaggerated. His drinking became part of his persona, according to several biographies, something he encouraged. By all accounts, he loved America and returned reluctantly to his wife in London.

He came to the United States again in 1952, this time with his wife, who was unhappy with his debauchery and raconteur behavior, which included infidelity. He returned to the United States twice in 1953. During his four U.S. tours, he never came to Maine.

He arrived for his final, fateful U.S. engagement on Oct. 20, and those who saw him knew right away he was sick. He experienced frequent blackouts and had trouble breathing.

His poor health was exacerbated by heavy drinking. He died in a New York hospital Nov. 9, two weeks after his 39th birthday. Among his last visitors was the painter Jack Heliker, who lived part of the year in Maine.

His cause of death was pneumonia and a bad liver.

Monday’s program, which Harris is calling “A Night at the Bar,” will be casual. The actors will sit on stools at the front of the restaurant and project to the audience, which will be seated around tables in the dining room and mezzanine.

Katahdin co-owner and chef Becky Simmons, who is Welsh, has prepared a Welsh-inspired menu of family recipes, including beer-braised sausages with leeks, Welsh rarebit, roasted lamb, and steak and chips.

Doors open at 5:30 p.m., and the reading will begin at 7 p.m. It should last an hour or so, and the restaurant and bar will remain open until “the food is gone and all the drink is gone,” Katahdin co-owner Winnie Moody said.

Harris is trying to round up a bottle of Penderyn single-malt whiskey, which is distilled in Wales. To commemorate the centenary of Thomas’ birth, Penderyn has produced a commemorative whiskey that includes his image on the bottle, as well as a booklet with quotes.

At several points in the script, Harris has added pauses where the actors and the audience are called on to make a toast.

“Obviously, we want to concentrate on his words. That’s the better part of his story,” Harris said. “But we also want to celebrate his life.”

Bob Keyes can be contacted at 791-6457 or:

bkeyes@pressherald.com

Twitter: pphbkeyes

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